by Amber Stuart
His head dipped lower, and his golden tongue slipped from his mouth to trace around her nut-brown nipple, savoring the succulent bud and tightening it almost to the point of pain. He flicked his tongue across the tip before taking it into his mouth and sucking firmly.
A new surge of moisture filled her folds, and she arched her hips restlessly in search of relief. His fingers dipped into the waistband of her panties, gliding over her soft skin and rounded tummy to find her mound. He stroked the thatch of curls before parting them to seek out her slit.
“Yes, just like that. Touch me please, Ryland.” She bit back a whimper as his fingers slipped inside her folds, tracing her interior anatomy with an air of experimentation, as though he was both aroused and curious. She had experienced something similar at the first sight of his cock, so she imagined it was the same for him.
She arched her hips and circled slightly, deliberately bringing his fingers against her clitoris. “Stroke me there please.”
He circled his fingers around the spasming bud, making her draw in a deep breath each time he made a rotation. His mouth moved to her other breast, worshiping it with equal attention, and she shut off her brain, surrendering to the sensations sweeping through her.
Her core contracted as she came, drenching his fingers with her slick release, and she moaned at the sight of Ryland dipping his head, his tongue flicking out before she lost sight of the appendage as it moved lower. All she could see then was his hair between her legs while he stripped off her panties, before his tongue slipped inside her, probing her depths and homing in on her clit.
She was still sensitive from the first orgasm, and his experimental suck of the taut bud caused another to overtake her, one so intense that she screamed out her release and wriggled backward from his questing mouth in an attempt to escape the almost-pain of his intimate kiss.
Ryland looked up at her uncertainly as she moved back from him a bit, his brow ridge furrowed. “Are you all right, Jada? Have I done something wrong?”
She shook her head, not able to answer for a moment while she gathered her composure with several deep breaths. “No, you did everything right. It was really good actually. I just got so sensitive, and it was starting to hurt a little bit.”
He nodded. It’s the same for me. As I’m straining to climax, there’s some…pain almost, and then it’s completely obliterated when I release.”
She scooted down the bed again, bringing herself close to him as she grasped his erection in her palm, guiding him toward her aching slit. “It sounds like we have a lot in common then.”
He nodded, his expression a blend of interest, arousal, and perhaps a hint of uncertainty as she directed him to lie on his back and straddled him. “It makes sense, since we’re a close genetic match.”
She nodded, but didn’t pursue the line of conversation. The last thing she wanted to do was think about genetics and scientific probabilities at the moment, when she was far more interested in more visceral experiences.
Grasping his smooth shaft, she guided it toward her sheath, bracing herself for pain as he slowly breached her tightly closed channel. After seven years without so much as an orgasm, because she’d had no sex drive, and certainly no penetration, she anticipated his possession would be uncomfortable.
She let out a sharp exhalation when his cock stretched her, slowly pushing its way in as she sank down the length of him. Her body was resistant for a moment, but adjusted to the intrusion with surprising rapidity. Soon, she was able to withdraw and sink down on him again.
His fingers dug into her hips, and he was helping to lift her up and practically slamming her down on him as they fucked with enthusiasm. It was the enthusiasm of virgins, because he had never been with a woman before, and she was practically a virgin after her eight years of celibacy.
As her sheath contracted around him, and he twitched inside her, she vaguely realized they probably should have used some type of protection, since they were a close genetic match. Surely, it would require some sort of laboratory assistance for them to create a child, since they weren’t an exact genetic match?
If not, she was beyond caring. The idea of having his child didn’t scare her. It actually sent a surge of warmth through her, and as she attained physical release, emotional satisfaction filled her at the idea of being a mother, especially the mother of his children. It was a dream she had tried to let go of years ago, knowing it was impossible. Now, thanks to him, it was no longer an impossibility, and after their intense lovemaking, it might be far closer to a certainty.
Afterward, they laid together on her bed, her head on his chest, with her cheek pressed against his rib cage, and her ear nestled to his thumping heartbeat. She had never felt so content, and she wanted to tell him that, but she was too lethargic from extreme pleasure to speak at the moment. Instead, sleep crept over her stealthily, and she reminded herself to tell him what this had meant to her in the morning when they woke.
Chapter Four
She woke alone. After eight years of sleeping with no one else, perhaps it should have felt completely natural to her, but it didn’t. She was bereft even before she opened her eyes, and as she stretched out her hand to feel the cold bed beside her, she knew he was gone and had been for hours.
Reluctantly, she forced her eyes open and frowned at the ceiling as she wondered why he had left. She didn’t think he was gone for good, but she wished he had taken a moment to wake her and explain why he was leaving.
Her lips tightened, and she cursed aloud as she realized he had probably slipped away with the intention of investigating AmbaCorp alone, not wanting to endanger her.
Anger swept through her, and her first impulse was to jump from the bed and make her way to the medical research facility to investigate, as she had planned. However, a deep breath brought a return of logic, and she acknowledged that perhaps he had a point about her investigating. She wasn’t trained to do so, and she couldn’t really defend herself if it became physical.
Abruptly, she remembered Mary Catherine Jones had entered the facility five days ago, and no one had heard from her since. Her ambitious, but naïve, plan to have a look around and poke through things seemed shortsighted now, and she reluctantly admitted to herself that Ryland had been right to reject the idea—though not right to arbitrarily make the decision for her and creep out early in the morning before she woke.
When he returned, she intended to tell him strongly that she didn’t like him slipping away and completely taking the decision from her. Now that she was fully functioning once more, she wanted to be useful and actually live again.
That didn’t mean she wanted to throw herself back into an intense social life, or make small talk with a bunch of strangers. She simply wanted to find a balance between being stuck in the apartment and being forced to go out for every little thing. Now that she could choose again, she demanded she retain that ability. Most of all, she wanted to find a place for Ryland in her new life as she figured out the direction she was going to take.
She wasn’t completely sold on the mating flare thing he talked about, and she didn’t believe in soulmates, but she was willing to keep an open mind and see how the relationship progressed. What kind of future was there with a seven-foot alien who couldn’t go out in public without wearing his Mr. Bland disguise? She didn’t know, and it was something they would have to address after the tracked down the missing women and stopped the rogue scientist.
After a quick shower, she made her way to the kitchen to have a bite to eat. Following her vigorous night in his arms, her body was screaming for sustenance.
She was finally mollified when she found a note pinned to her refrigerator, written in very precise handwriting. The message was succinct:
I’ve gone to investigate AmbaCorp. I’m not going inside at the moment, but will later this evening. In the meantime, could you find schematics for the business? That will be helpful for me tonight.
R
; He hadn’t even taken time to sign his full name, but she took that as a good sign. She would obviously know who he was, and the simple initial seemed more intimate somehow than his full name would have been, especially if he had added his surname.
Was that what aliens called their last name? He’d introduced himself as Ryland Breese, and she couldn’t help testing it out in her mind. Jada Breese. It sounded nice, but she shook her at her own silliness and forced her attention to finishing the toast and cereal before moving to the computer to accomplish the task he’d requested.
She suspected this was along the lines of busywork, because he considered it safe for her to stay at her computer and find information for him. Surely, he must have some sort of scanning device or advanced binoculars that would have allowed him to see the layout of the building from the exterior, but just in case it wasn’t simply a task he’d assigned so she would feel like she was contributing, she needed to get to work.
She grimaced as she sank into the wheelchair again, hating it with every fiber of her being now that she was freed from the contraption. She never would have sat in it again, but her house was woefully under-furnished, and it was the only seat available at the computer table. She didn’t have a laptop, because she hadn’t been mobile enough to move it around her house before the nanobots, so she would just have to sit in the chair, but she vowed it would be the last time. Sometime today, she would find a way to get a new chair, and perhaps some other new furniture.
She was deep in the files of the City Planning database when the door hummed, and light emanated from it. She didn’t bother to look up, not wanting to lose the data packet she was following, as she waited for Ryland to enter.
The locks popped, and the door swung open. Almost immediately, she knew it wasn’t Ryland stepping into her space. She wasn’t certain how she knew that, but the person felt wrong to her.
She looked up from her computer with dread and fear as she saw two people step into her apartment, both wearing black suits and looking very nondescript. She immediately recognized them as Mr. Bland disguises, and her first impulse was to push up from the chair and run for it.
As they approached, she froze. She appeared to be paralyzed with fright, and though she wasn’t that good of an actress—she was certainly terrified—she wasn’t completely incapacitated by terror either. It occurred to her as the two aliens approached, their expressions revealing nothing, that it was to her benefit to appear to still be confined to the chair.
If they realized she had been healed, they would know someone was on to them, though they might not know it was Ryland directly. She would be putting her lover at risk, along with herself. Either way, she didn’t think she could fight them off, so they were going to take her. This way, they would be lax about security if they thought she was immobilized.
As they approached, she pressed her back into the chair and lifted her hands. “Who are you? What do you want?”
“Remain calm, Jada Washington,” said Left Mr. Bland.
“You’ve been recruited for a medical study,” said Right Mr. Bland as they boxed her in.
Her heart was racing in her ears, and she didn’t have to fake the note of fear that made her voice shake. “What are you doing with me?”
Neither bothered to answer her as they stood on either side of her chair, both men taking an arm of the wheelchair in one hand and hefting it, and her, seemingly with no difficulty at all. The show of strength was frightening and demoralizing, and she didn’t know if it was a deliberate display, or if they were simply no-nonsense in their collection practices. After four hundred women, they probably had their routine down pretty well, after all.
As they walked past it, she managed to hit the button to turn off her computer, just in case they decided to look at her screen. Neither man seemed at all interested in it, and she was relieved. Otherwise, they would have seen just exactly what she was digging for in the City Planning Department’s database. That would have led to questions about why she wanted schematics for the building housing AmbaCorp, which was likely just a front for the alien kidnapping and breeding ring led by the mysterious Dr. Ha.
Unfortunately for her, he was about to become far more known and less mysterious, since the doctor had clearly decided to enroll her in his so-called study. Jada was sure Dr. Ha was studying the women he’d stolen, but not in a benign fashion, and certainly not in a way that would benefit anyone with Kaiser’s Syndrome. She wasn’t entirely faking it when she whimpered and allowed some of her fear to show, which made her shake in the chair.
She hoped Ryland would return soon. When he saw the wheelchair gone, would he realize what had happened? Surely he would know she wouldn’t have voluntarily taken it anywhere, and with the locks off the door, though there was no damage to them, he would surely realize someone had let themselves into her apartment and taken her. Once he came to that conclusion, he would immediately realize it was his half-brother and come for her.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked as they loaded her wheelchair into the van, securing her chair with straps. It was akin to the bus for the disabled that she often took to doctor’s appointments or scheduled to go shopping, but when they closed the door without answering, she saw there were no handles on the inside. Only they could let her out.
She hoped when Ryland came for her that he was able to do so safely, and that he wouldn’t be alone. She didn’t like the idea of him facing who knew how many, all of them aliens like him, which diminished the physical advantage he would have had over human assailants.
“Hurry up, Ryland,” she whispered softly, allowing herself the comfort of speaking his name just once before she subsided into silence. Once she was at the facility, she would have to pretend like she had never heard of Ryland, and she would have to slip back into the invalid role, though it didn’t sit well with her.
It was ironic that the device that had been her virtual prison for the last seven years was now one of the things that might end up saving her. The wheelchair was oddly comforting, or at least what it represented, as the van drove farther from her home and contact with Ryland.
When the van stopped, Jada clung to the arms of the wheelchair and debated her chances of making a run for it despite her earlier plan. As the doors opened, the same two Mr. Blands stood there, but there were two more behind them, and she hesitated, perhaps too long to act, because the first two who had kidnapped her stepped into the van and unfastened the strap around her chair to wheel her down the ramp that folded from the van.
She looked at them closely, searching for any sign of their true alien form, but their disguises were perfect, other than the fact that they looked almost identical. So did the other two as she got nearer, and she stiffened when one of them put a hand on her shoulder and gave her what was supposed to be a reassuring smile, though it simply sent chills racing up her spine.
“Welcome to the program, Jada Washington.” The fourth alien held the door open, and they slipped inside the back entrance of a large building, which she presumed was AmbaCorp, moving in procession, with one of the aliens pushing her chair, another one walking farther ahead, the fourth bringing up the rear, and the one who still had his creepy hand on her shoulder walking alongside as he looked down at her.
She shuddered when his Mr. Bland disguised melted to become his true form. Almost immediately, she knew this had to be Ryland’s half-brother, Jorvak Ha. They shared some resemblance, though Ha’s features were rougher and more irregular. She grimaced in disgust.
He must have mistaken her reaction for fear of his alien visage, which was probably a relief since she wasn’t supposed to know about his existence. He patted her shoulder in a reassuring fashion. “I know this seems frightening, Jada, but you have no reason to fear us. We need something from you, and in the end, we’ll ensure you’re healthy again.”
She stiffened, glaring up at him. “What do you want from me?”
“There’s something very unique about
you, and the other women like you, and our species requires your assistance.”
She knew exactly what he was talking about, but she couldn’t betray that knowledge. Instead, she forced a deadpan expression. “I’ve been told I’m a heckuva blogger, and I’m pretty gifted with hacking, though I’d appreciate you not telling anyone about that, so if you need either one of those skills, I’m the person for you. You could have just called me like normal…er, aliens?”
His expression remained unchanged, so either he had no sense of humor, or she just wasn’t funny. “I’m afraid we need something more…fundamental from you and your compatriots.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Like what? I’d like some answers before I go any farther.”
The doctor patted her arm in a condescending fashion before finally removing his hand from her. “I’m afraid it doesn’t really matter what you want at this point, Jada. You’ve been recruited for a great honor, and a great duty. Our people will revere your contribution.”
“That’s terrific,” she said darkly. “Am I going to be alive to see this great reverence, Doctor?” She cursed herself for uttering the slip even as he stiffened. “Or am I wrong in guessing you’re a mad scientist-type?” She held her breath as she waited to see if he would accept her attempts to cover her slipup without suspicion.
After a moment, he simply gave her a brief nod. “I am a doctor, though hardly a mad scientist. I’m a revolutionary genius on my planet, though many do not yet recognize that. They will when we prove our success though. Oh yes, they will.”
Great. He wasn’t a dedicated scientist. Instead, he was after the glory too. At least if he had been doing this horrible experiment strictly to save his people, it would have been slightly preferable. Not that there was any justification for kidnapping and forcibly harvesting genetic material from four hundred people, but it was even more reprehensible to know he was doing it for some sort of accolade by the Dazon. “And if I’d prefer to decline this honor?”
